By Hils Robson
- YOUR BABY HATES NAPPY TIME: Put a towel over your knee and try changing them while they are warm and close to you, takes practice but you will both love it.
- CRADLE CAP: To naturally help remove your baby’s cradle cap, try massaging some coconut or vegetable oil into the hair, leave for a few hours and then gently comb through with a baby comb or brush.
- SCARED OF CUTTING YOUR BABY’S NAILS: Use an emery board to gently file them down when they are sleeping.
- NO TIME FOR A BABY BOOK: Make an email account in your child’s name and send any photos or little updates there so you can update them later and show your child, or keep a folder to hand in the kitchen to pop things in.
- DREADING INJECTIONS: Try arriving 20 minutes earlier and massaging your baby’s feet. Research shows they will feel less pain, and this will keep you calmer too!
- BABY FIGHTING SLEEP: Continuously stroke gently between their eyebrows and down the nose or give them something to look at above them as this will tire their eyes.
- WINDY BABY: Bring their legs up gently to their chest and move in and out. Always make sure to keep your baby in an upright position when winding as this means the wind can escape much easier as the windpipe isn’t kinked.
- HAVE MASTISIS: Keep some green cabbage in the fridge and place the cold leaves on your breasts. This works because the leaves absorb some of the fluid from the breast gland and can help within hours. (Not to be used on broken skin)
- UNSETTLED BABY: Run the tap or fill a bowl of water and swish it near the baby; it will make them feel womb like!
- FREQUENT NAPPY RASH: Make sure your baby has lots of time without a nappy on, let them lie on the floor and kick their legs and this will also tire them out.
- NEEDING A SHOWER: Take your baby in to the room with you, lie them on the changing mat safely, remove their nappy so they can kick and then enjoy your shower! They will be warm, will enjoy the sound of the water, can see you and hear you and you don’t then need to rush.
- LISTEN TO YOUR SPIDEY SENSES: Soooo much of what will happen once you have your baby will be instinctual! Your mind and body will know what to do, truly. If your baby cries, chances are you will stand up to rock them, there you go! That’s because they are evolved to be carried like lots of mammal species. Before doing something for/with your baby, if you didn’t even think for a second about what you were doing, then you are doing the right thing. Trust yourself.
- TRY AND REMAIN CALM around your baby. They will totally pick up on how you are feeling and will become stressed if you are, even if you need to pretend!
- YOU CANNOT SPOIL YOUR BABY: You truly cannot spoil a baby. By loving them you are helping them feel safe and secure and are setting them up for life.
- REPLACE THINGS IMMEDIATELY: Always replace whatever you have used from your changing bag/rucksack as soon as you get home, or you may forget and then be caught short.
- DISTRACTION IS YOUR FRIEND: Always works – go to another room, show them something, go outside.
- ALL BABIES ARE DIFFERENT and so don’t listen too intently to other people’s stories as no 2 babies are the same.
Hils Robson founded Best Beginning in 2009 and is an award-winning Infant Massage Instructor, Doula and Mother of 4. During lockdown, she and her husband filmed and produced an online baby massage guide to help parents learn from their homes. This step-by-step guide is emailed immediately after purchase and parents can start learning how to massage their babies within minutes (and has lots of other baby tips throughout the easy to follow videos). Hils is passionate about helping parents enjoying life with a baby and being the parent they want to be. For more information, visit www.bestbeginning.co.uk or follow on Facebook or Instagram.
